Volunteers

Volunteers is where coordinators put people on Sunday's teams, see who has said yes, and spot problems before the morning: a gap in the kids rooms, someone booked on a date they're away, or a room without two cleared adults.

When to use this

• Early in the week, to fill next Sunday's positions.
• Midweek, to chase replies and cover a swap or a decline.
• On Saturday, to print the roster and send a last reminder.

Build Sunday's schedule

1. Open Volunteers. The Schedule tab opens on the next service; the strip across the top lets you choose another date or event.
2. Each team lists its positions and how many people each one needs. Select Assign beside a position.
3. Pick a person. Team members are listed first; people who can't take the position (for example, not cleared for a kids room, or blocked out that day) are shown with the reason and can't be picked.
4. They're added as waiting for a reply. Select a person's name to mark them accepted or declined by hand, or to remove them.

The bar at the top of the service shows how many positions are filled, accepted, waiting, swapping or declined.

Auto-fill open positions

Auto-fill open slots suggests people for every empty position in one go. It only suggests team members who are free that day, who aren't blocked out, and who are cleared for child-facing positions, and it favours whoever has the fewest upcoming dates, so the load is shared fairly. In a kids room it also prefers someone from a different household from the adults already there, so the room meets the two-adult rule.

Nothing changes until you look at the suggestions and select Apply. Applied people start as waiting for a reply; send reminders so they can accept.

Screening and child-facing positions

Every position on a kids team is child-facing. Only adults whose safety screening is cleared can be scheduled there. The schedule shows Cleared or Not cleared and nothing more: the screening details are restricted records that only a few people can open.

If someone shows Not cleared and you believe they've completed screening, ask the children's director to check; don't schedule them in the meantime.

The two-adult rule

Every kids room that's open needs at least two cleared adults from different households in it, so no adult is ever alone with children. A married couple, or a parent and their grown child, count as one household, so they need a third adult from another household with them. The Needs attention list warns you when a room is short, along with any:

• open position,
• decline or swap request,
• person booked on a date they've blocked out,
• person booked in two places at once,
• person in a kids position who isn't cleared.

Red items are safety problems: fix them before Sunday.

Blockout dates

A blockout is a date someone can't serve: a holiday, a work trip, a family visit. Volunteers add their own in the member app; coordinators can add them on the Blockouts tab.

1. Choose the volunteer.
2. Pick the first and last day.
3. Add a short note if it helps, such as "Out of town". Keep it plain: no health or family details.

Auto-fill skips blocked-out people, and the schedule warns you if someone is booked anyway. A blockout doesn't take anyone off dates they're already on: if a volunteer adds one over a date they're scheduled for, the app tells them to ask for a swap, and the date shows in Needs attention until it's covered.

Requests: swaps and declines

The Requests tab collects what needs your attention:

• Swap requests: the volunteer can't make it and has asked for cover. Find someone, or select Keep them on if it's sorted.
• Declined: the slot is open again. Find a replacement takes you to that service.
• Waiting for a reply: scheduled but not yet answered. Nudge sends a friendly reminder.

Send reminders

Send reminders on the Schedule tab sends everyone on that service a reminder by email or text (and in the member app, when it's on). In the sandbox they're captured in the Messages outbox; nothing is sent. Print roster prints the schedule for the noticeboard.

Good to know

• Volunteer scheduling is an optional feature. It's on by default; if you don't see it, check Features and settings.
• The Teams tab lists each team's members and, for kids teams, how many are cleared.
• The Notify tab sends a member-app notification to all members or a team (only when the member app is on).

Top tips

• Run Auto-fill first and then adjust by hand: it's quicker than assigning from a blank page, and it spreads the load fairly.
• Clear every red item in Needs attention by Thursday, so Saturday is for reminders, not recruiting.
• Ask volunteers to add their holidays as blockouts once a term; it saves most of the declines.

Troubleshooting

I can't pick someone for a kids position. They aren't cleared for child-facing roles, or they're blocked out that day. The picker shows which.

Auto-fill didn't fill everything. Nobody else on the team is free and cleared. Ask the team, or add people to it on the Teams tab.

The Volunteers page says it's turned off. Switch Volunteer scheduling on under Features and settings.